Lincomycin, initially known as lincolnensin, is a useful antibiotic. Procedures for preparing the antibiotic are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,086,912. Lincomycin fermentations yield the desired lincomycin (lincomycin A), and the compound lincomycin B. Lincomycin sold for medicinal use must not contain more than about 4% lincomycin B. Thus, there is a constant search for recovery procedures which can be used to achieve this goal in the most effective manner.
The publication "High-Pressure Liquid Chromatographic Assays for Clindamycin, Clindamycin Phosphate, and Clindamycin Palmitate" in Jour. of Pharm. Sciences, Vol. 67, No. 9, Sept. 1978, pp. 1254-1257, discloses an assay procedure which can not be used as a recovery process. The starting material used in the assay is pure material as contrasted with the impure material used in the subject invention process. Most importantly, the assay procedure uses paired ion chromatography. This can not be used in a recovery process because the paired ion goes into the desired product, and can be separated therefrom, if at all, only with great difficulty.
The process described herein is considered to be the best known process for obtaining highly pure lincomycin hyrochloride. As an added bonus, the process also yields analytically pure preparations of lincomycin B hydrochloride which can be used as a laboratory standard.